A group of up to 40 youths assaulted three U.S. Marines this week in a horrible incident that was captured on now-viral video on a California beach.
The Marines were relaxing on the beach in San Clemente after their shift in Oceanside at Camp Pendleton. Hunter Antonino, one of the Marines, said that some sort of debris struck him on the face and caused him to order the teens to put out their fireworks.
He added, “They were setting off fireworks, being aggressive and obnoxious, and bothering other people, so I went over to them and ordered them to stop.” The adolescents allegedly followed the Marines as they made their way back to the dock, at that point Antonio and another Marine identified themselves as Marines in order to get the gang to leave them alone.
The gang instead brutally assaulted the Marines. The altercation began when a teenager hit a Marine in the back, causing the Marine to turn and rush at the juvenile. As the adolescents kicked them and yelled racist slurs at them, two of the Marines can be seen on camera curled up in the fetal position on the ground in pain. The Marines received head and upper body kicks.
The Marines were hurt, but, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s officers, they declined to go to a hospital. Antonio believed he could have had a concussion.
“Given the number of individuals under investigation,” Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. Sgt. Frank Gonzalez said, “This is regarded as an assault carried out using a deadly weapon. While all of these victims were on the ground, their feet became the weapons employed. The sheriff’s department will conduct a thorough investigation and attempt to identify the culprits whether the victims choose to pursue legal action or get medical care.”
The sequence of events may have been better caught by two cameras on the side of a neighboring restaurant. The city’s IT team was attempting to transfer the pictures from the cameras to the sheriff’s department detectives, according to Chris Duncan, the mayor of San Clemente.
“Marines are always accepted, recognized, and well cared for in San Clemente, which is why Duncan found the situation to be so terrible.”
